Turbotec Rally Kings

A flat-four turbo with the crank sitting low and the mass spread wide, driving all four wheels through a centre differential you can bias by hand. On tarmac it is quick. On gravel it is a different machine entirely.

Long-travel suspension means the car moves constantly beneath you, compressing into ruts, extending over crests, and never quite settling. Learning to drive it is learning to stop fighting that.

• Boxer layout puts the crankshaft low, which is why it changes direction the way it does.
• Anti-lag keeps the turbo spinning off-throttle. That is what the banging on overrun is.
• All-wheel drive lets you be brutal with it. Gravel makes sure you still pay for it.

Every other experience shows you the road. This one does not. You drive on a co-driver's words at a speed that only works if you commit before you can see, and the whole skill is learning to believe a voice over your own eyes. Four-wheel drive means you can be brutal with it. Gravel means it will still bite.

Surface, at maximum. Gravel, ruts, and the hard edge where the loose stuff ends and the base layer begins. Then landing: compression, then a structural strike. The texture goes silent the instant the car is airborne, which is its own kind of warning.

Every setting is configured before you sit down. Force feedback, haptics, seat position, field of view. Select the experience, and drive.